Project Website: https://resmob.org
Title: Resource Mobilisation for effective implementation of the updated Biodiversity Strategy in Namibia
Commissioned by: The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Building (BMUB)
Project Implementation
This project is being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH- commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. This project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.
Overall term: 2014 to 2017
Context
Namibia's rich biodiversity and stunning scenery attract more than a million tourists every year. Namibia is taking a pioneering role in environmental protection on the international stage: the country has signed all key international environmental agreements, is actively involved in the corresponding negotiation processes and is also a leading nation among the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Namibia adopted its second national biodiversity strategy in 2015. However, a review of the first strategy revealed that some targets could not be met fully due to a lack of communication and adequate financing. Additional resources must be mobilised, especially from other ministries and the private sector, to make the second biodiversity strategy a success. To this end, decision-makers must be made aware of the importance of nature for the wellbeing of the society and the economy. Up until now, there has not been sufficient information to clearly demonstrate the value of nature, ecosystems and their services in Namibia.
Objective
The objective of the project is to sustainably improve Namibia's capacity to mobilize resources for biodiversity conservation, specifically to enable it to implement the objectives outlined in the second National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP 2).
In addition to mobilization of resources for biodiversity conservation the project aims to improve capacity and promote valuations of ecosystem services to inform decision making about the values of nature and the integration of biodiversity into national and sectoral policy-making, planning, budgeting and decision-making frameworks; promote the development of a wide range of economic incentives for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.
Approach
The project focuses on three priority areas to achieve the project objective:
Natural capital accounting
Compelling arguments must be put forward to convince decision-makers to make additional resources available, the information base must therefore be strengthened. Data from environmental -economic accounts and ecosystem accounts are key for making better informed decisions. Both information systems are based upon international standards and guidelines aiming to add environment aspects (natural capital accounting) to national accounts and thus also to gross domestic product as the key indicator of progress.
The provision of this data is also gaining importance as part of work to monitor the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the Agenda 2030. The project is working with the World Bank's Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) project on natural capital accounting. The project's methodological approach is based on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Initiative (TEEB) and recommendations and standards from the United Nations Statistical Commission.
Resource mobilisation
To mobilise additional financial resources, an expenditure report was drawn up documenting all public and private funding spent on conserving biodiversity in Namibia. The figures will be compared with the funding needed to implement the biodiversity strategy in order to determine the shortfall. To make up this financing shortfall, tangible steps will be put in place to introduce economic financing tools, for instance individual elements of ecological finance reform. These steps may include introducing taxes, duties or charges or even phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies. The results of these undertakings will be incorporated into a resource mobilisation strategy. At the methodological level, the project works closely with the United Nations Development Programme's Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN).
Capacity development
The project supports the establishment of a network of environmental economists (EENN) that offers customised training sessions to develop environmental economic expertise in Namibia. The project also supports capacity development of national experts through offering and facilitation of specialist trainings on environmental economics, environmental fiscal reform, ecosystem services and valuation of ecosystem and ecosystem services. In addition the project strongly collaborates with the two high learning institutions (University of Namibia and the Namibia University for Science and Technology) in pursuance to improve teaching of the environmental economics.
